Jericho One Shot: Remember Me

KrzyKitty · **Posted:** Wed Oct 29, 2008 2:39 pm

REMEMBER ME - pt 1

“Bill, Bill,” a voice whispered to him from the darkness, “BILL!”

Bill continued to lie there, trying to pretend he was still asleep. Why had he told Jake and Hawkins he would go hunting with them today? He hated getting up before sunrise and hated the idea of shooting animals even more. Yes, he understood they must hunt to survive but why did he have to participate in it?

“Bill, if you do not get up now,” Hawkins began to threaten.

“Oh, alright, I’m up, I’m up,” Bill protested.

After Bill got dressed, they all grabbed their rifles from the gun rack in the living room and went out front to mount the horses waiting outside. Okay, riding horses was another thing he hated doing.

They had been riding for a couple of hours and they hadn’t seen anything.

“We will cover more ground and might have better luck if we split up,” suggested Hawkins. Everyone agreed. Hawkins rode toward New Bern, Jake toward Cedar Brook, and Bill headed towards Sharp.

Bill had just reached the edge of Sharp, a town in the disputed piece of land between Jericho and the ASA. The little town of Sharp had been abandoned in the Great Depression, empty except for a few hold outs that died during the first winter after the bombs. There were no stores, no post office, not even a stop sign. There were just a few rundown houses and a lone athletic field.

As Bill rode toward the ghost town to check it out, he saw three vehicles near a building next to the athletic field. About ten soldiers were posted around the field and a group of tents were set up there. Three men in Ravenwood polo shirts were dousing the tents down with a liquid.

Bill quickly dismounted behind a clump of trees and crept up to the field.

“Sergeant is the area secured?” said a man in a uniform with the ASA flag on it.

“Yes, sir,” the soldier answered back, “Prepared to move out on your orders, sir.”

“Good, let’s roll. I want to be back at Loomer Ridge by dusk tomorrow.”

The soldier gave the order over a hand radio to move out and within fifteen minutes only the Ravenwood men remained with a single black Suburban.

The Ravenwood men went to work. On their way out of the fenced field, they finished dousing the tents, lit and threw matches, and watched as the tents went up in flames. It was then that they saw her, running from the enclosure. The Ravenwood guys pulled their weapons to fire. As she continued toward them, one of them signaled to the others to hold their fire. He leveled his 9mm pistol at her and fired one shot. It hit her in the leg and she fell wounded. He casually strolled up to her and stopped front of her.

Knowing she wasn’t going to get any mercy from him, she struggled to get to her feet in hopes of escaping. But before she could get off the ground, he took the can that he held and doused her legs with it. He pulled out and lit a match, smiling as her face filled with fear.

Bill found himself unable to sit there knowing what was about to happen. He raised his rifle and aimed it at the man, but thought twice about it. If he did kill him, the match might still ignite the fuel, so he turned his sight to one of the men by the Suburban. He fired and watched the man drop, distracting the others for a moment but the match still dropped.

KrzyKitty · **Posted:** Wed Oct 29, 2008 5:12 pm

REMEMBER ME - pt 2

“Fortunately it didn’t fall in the liquid but in the grass nearby, starting a fire that slowly burned toward the woman. Bill tried to take aim at the other men but they had taken cover behind their vehicle and were returning fire. One of the Ravenwood men was laying on the ground hiding behind the Suburban’s tire. Bill got him in his sights, but at the very last moment, the Ravenwood man ducked behind the tire causing Bill to shoot out the tire instead. He would need to get closer to take them out and time was short. The fire was slow but it was starting to pick up speed, so he needed to be quick about it.

Hearing the shots, Jake and Hawkins knew there must be trouble and quickly rode toward it, fearing the worst for their friend Bill. They both met up at the spot where Bill had left his horse just outside of town and dismounted. Hawkins pulled out his binoculars and peered into town, trying to locate Bill amongst the buildings. Hawkins spotted him as he moved into the town, using the shadows to conceal himself.

As Bill crept forward, the two men seized the chance to abandon the Suburban and made a run for one of the nearby buildings. The door was not locked and they quickly entered. The building had big windows that let in lots of light and they could easily see they were not alone. From a corner that the light seemed to miss, they could see two eyes staring back at them. When they drew closer, they saw a young girl huddled in the corner, eyes wide in terror. She was sitting, rocking, and cradling a notebook.

“Well, who do we have here?” one of them asked, smiling and kneeling down. “What is your name? What have you got there?”

He reached out for the notebook, but she pulled away, backing herself up to the wall.

“Trust no one,” she said, “Trust no one.”

The girl turned her eyes to him and stared at him. Her eyes so empty of life haunted the man. He stood up and drew his pistol, determined to get answers from her. But she just sat there, staring at him.

Hawkins tapped Jake’s shoulder and motioned him to circle around to the right side of the buildings. Jake nodded and they moved out. Jake caught up with Bill at the rear bumper of the Suburban and Bill pointed at a door that was ajar on the building near the Suburban. They could hear voices from inside, but as Jake and Hawkins moved toward the building, Bill hurried back to the field and the wounded woman.

As Bill approached the woman, he could see the fire had just reached the woman’s legs. Bill ripped off his jacket and smothered the fire.

“There, there,” he said softly as he picked her up, “We need to get you out of here.”

Bill carried the woman as fast as he could to where he had tied up his horse, surprised by how thin she was. He let her lean on his shoulder when he placed her on the ground next to the horse. It was then that he realized just how thin she was. She looked like the pictures of World War II German death camp prisoners he saw in high school, with almost every bone in her body clearly visible. He was so sickened by the sight, he nearly lost his breakfast.

Meanwhile, Hawkins and Jake have made it to the open door of the building and rushed in, prepared for a battle. They were not disappointed, as the two men whipped around to meet them, guns blazing. The young girl, scared by the gunfire, scurried to hide in a closet. The two men were no match for Jake and Hawkins and they were soon dead. Jake had seen the young girl scurry for the closet and his mind flashed back to Iraq. He shook the image out of his mind and put his gun away.

“Hello?” Jake said softly, trying to coax her out, “It’s okay, honey, we’re not going to hurt you.”

Hawkins then tried his hand at it. He put away his gun, went over to the closet door and sat down on the floor.

KrzyKitty · **Posted:** Wed Oct 29, 2008 5:14 pm

REMEMBER ME - pt 3

“Hi, my name is Rob. What is yours?” Hawkins waited patiently for a reply and after a long period of silence, his patience was rewarded.

“Clare.”

“Clare? That’s a pretty name. Well, let’s get you out of here, okay?”

Hawkins stood up and offered his hand to Clare. She accepted it timidly and rose to her feet. Jake, Hawkins and Clare cautiously left the building and hurriedly walked to the spot where the horses were tied up.

“Jake, you and Bill take Clare and the woman to the Medical Center to be checked out by Kenchy. I will call Beck and have him meet me here to check out the camp. We will find out what happened here,” Hawkins said.

With a quick nod, Jake and Bill helped the woman on Bill’s horse and Bill climbed on behind her, holding her by her waist. Jake mounted his horse and Hawkins helped Clare up. As the horses took off toward the Medical Center, Hawkins pulled out his phone and dialed up Beck’s number.

As they rode at full gallop toward the Medical Center, Bill could feel the woman starting to go limp in his arms.

“Hold on, please, just hold on,” he whispered to her, praying they would make it in time to save her. As Bill pulled his horse to a stop in front of the Emergency entrance, Kenchy and Gail ran out to meet them. As they gently pulled off the horse and put her on a gurney that Jessica had brought out for them, Bill dismounted. Kenchy, seeing the worried look on Bill’s face, placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“We will do everything we can to save her,” he said, trying in vain not to let Bill see his concern. The woman was extremely thin and burning up with a fever. Bill follows as Kenchy and Gail roll the gurney into the entrance as Jake arrives with the little girl. Jessica helps her down and was shocked at how skinny she was. As they go inside the building, a military humvee pulled up and Jake exchanged a few words with its occupants. He joins them in the Humvee and they drive off in the direction of the camp in Sharp.

In the hospital, the staff worked feverishly for hours, fighting for the woman’s life. Kenchy called on Heather to make ice and tried every medicine he had, but the woman’s fever continued to rise. Kenchy knew the window of opportunity to save her was closing fast and felt helpless as he watched her life slipping away.

Bill sat steadfast by her bedside, holding her hand, trying to provide comfort to her. The woman stirred briefly and placed her hand on Bill’s and then motioned him closer. When he did, she spoke to him.

“Please take good care of Clare,” she whispered softly, paused to catch her breath and then she continued, “And don’t forget what you saw at the camp.”

“You are going to be fine,” Bill began to protest.

“Please… remember me.”

With one final breathe, her eyes closed and it was over.

After an examination cleared Clare of any sickness, she spent the night at the Medical Center for observation and then went home with Stanley and Mimi. Three days later, Hawkins and Beck stopped by. Mimi had called them, saying that Clare asked to see them.

“Mr. Hawkins,” a small voice spoke. As he turned toward the voice, Clare handed him the notebook, “My mom would have wanted you to have this.”

“Thank you, Clare,” he said as he took the notebook. As Clare threw her arms around him, he wrapped his arms around her.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

KrzyKitty · **Posted:** Wed Oct 29, 2008 5:18 pm

REMEMBER ME - pt 4

After Clare had left the room with Mimi and Stanley, Hawkins opened the notebook to read the chilling words of a story that had just been brought to light.

To whom it may concern:

I am writing this in hopes that maybe someone will know the truth about what happened here at this camp. Thanks to a careless soldier, maybe someone will.

We, about 500 of us, were brought here by truck in the dead of the night. We lost 5 on the road, not sure if it was dehydration, malnutrition or what killed them.

We sleep on the ground, in tents, crammed in like sardines in a can. Our daily rations are nothing more than a handful of cooked rice, cold and slimy. We have no fires to heat it up or warm ourselves with. The guards sleep in cots in tents and have fires that they sit around talking and joking. We are not allowed to talk but we do anyway, in hushed whispers late at night.

The next morning, the soldiers rounded up about 50 of us for “vaccinations” against the Hudson River virus. I don’t believe them because they came down sick within days of the shots and we lost all of them.

The remaining”healthy” ones were forced to care for the sick even though we were never vaccinated. The virus spread quickly and within one week of our arrival many were ill. By the end of the second week, about half of the originally 500 were dead.

By the end of the third week, about 100 more had died and only a handful of us were left healthy enough to take care of the remaining sick.

Starving and exhausted, a small group of us struggled to keep everyone alive but we failed. By the end of the fourth week, only my daughter and I remained. We are both showing signs of the sickness that has claimed so many lives here.

I have heard rumors this was inflicted on us on purpose, to see how fast it would spread. My heart burns with hatred like none I ever felt before and even though I know it is wrong to hate anyone, forgiveness is not in my thoughts as I write this.

I have overheard the soldiers talking about leaving here, perhaps going home to Colorado. I am hopeful that my daughter and I can get out of this alive but I fear we will not. We know too much. That is why I write this. What happened here, on American soil, must never be forgotten. I pray it never happens again, anywhere.

Sarah Ann Samson, 32 years old and Clare Bonita Samson, 12

Hawkins closed the notebook and handed it to Major Beck. The notebook, along with the pictures of the camp and the mass graves in the field at Sharp were put into his locked office for safe keeping, so that when the Civil War finally came to an end those who had committed this horrific act could be brought to trial and the world could see what happened --- and remember.

masscas · **Posted:** Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:52 am

That was such a good short story !

Are you going to submit it to a fanzine for publishing ? You can tell, that I come from a publish or perish work environment. There are a couple of editors that I can recommend, but I'm sure that you have a list of your own. I liked Neon Rainbow Press ( they do gen, multimedia, and slash) So does Agent with Style. I don't use Neon as much now that they no longer do War of the Worlds new material. Agent is here in Maryland. She will be at Farpoint (here) in February. Both have access to other publishers as well. I personally am not into slash, but they publish more gen and multimedia. A lot of action adventure, relationship, hurt comfort, alternate universe, cross overs, etc. They also support older fandoms as well. So I buy from them a lot.

:cat:

Jericho One Shot: Remember Me

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